Bill Cosby found guilty of aggravated indecent assault

(WENN) — Comedian Bill Cosby has been found guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

A Montgomery County jury in Pennsylvania returned a guilty verdict on Thursday for his January 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand.

The accuser, a former Temple University employee, claimed the funnyman drugged and assaulted her at his home in the state.

The jurors deliberated for almost 15 hours over two days before announcing the verdict.

Other alleged victims of Cosby's sexual misconduct cheered in court when the guilty verdict was announced, while the comic sat forward on the edge of his chair, showing little emotion.

Judge Steven O'Neill has yet to announce a date for sentencing, but state law requires it within 100 days of a conviction.

The 80-year-old "The Cosby Show" star faces up to 30 years in prison.

He escaped a guilty verdict during a trial last year after the jury was left deadlocked, and the judge declared the proceedings a mistrial.

The guilty verdict comes almost 2 1/2 years after Cosby was first charged in December 2015.

More than 50 women have come forward in recent years to accuse Cosby of decades-old sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior, but the alleged assault of Constand has been the only one contested in court.

The statute of limitations has expired on all the other cases.

Five of the other accusers were allowed to testify in the retrial, despite opposition from Cosby's lawyers.

Janice Dickinson, Heidi Thomas, Janice Baker-Kinney, Lise-Lotte Lublin and Chelan Lasha all told the court earlier this month that they were drugged by Cosby with wine or pills, matching Constand's story. All of the women, except for Lublin, added they were sexually assaulted by the comedian.